Playing quality opponents has been the recipe for success for the Fort Lewis College Skyhawks this season.
The Skyhawks’ three football wins have come against opponents that are a combined 18-6 this season. Their five losses have come to teams that are a combined 16-23.
FLC will try to pick up its first win against a team with a losing record at noon Saturday, when the Western State Mountaineers (3-5, 2-4 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) come to Ray Dennison Memorial Field.
“I think we’ve gotten better as the season has gone on. It’s been a matter of our kids continuing to work hard and the coaches continuing to work hard,” FLC head coach John L. Smith said. “It’s not so much that when we have a good opponent we play harder and the worse the opponent is the less hard we play. That’s not the case.
“We weren’t there in the first half of the season. The guys weren’t playing good football. We’ve improved the second half, and we have to continue to improve Saturday.”
Winners of two of their last three games, the Skyhawks (3-5, 2-4 RMAC) will aim to match their win total from a season ago with three games to play this season. If FLC can beat Western State and Adams State on the road a week later, the Skyhawks would have a chance at their first winning season since 2006 with a home finale against Chadron State. FLC went 7-4 that season and played in a Division II bowl game against Dixie State, a 24-14 win in Utah.
Smith said that certainly motivates the team this late in the season, but he has them focusing on one game at a time.
“Last week in the locker room, we said what we do from here on out depends entirely on our ability to concentrate on just the next game,” he said.
FLC will welcome a Mountaineers offense that centers around running back Austin Ekeler, who has 12 rushing touchdowns while averaging 163.25 yards per game. The Mountaineers have averaged better than 200 yards per game rushing as a team this season.
“They have the No. 1 rusher in the league, and they will come out and get it done,” Smith said. “Our front has to do a great job for us, and the defense has to hold the rope. We have to react to the play action and make sure we don’t allow the big play there. We have to force them to work for it, and we need to rely on our offense to get a few scores.”
FLC will counter with a strong ground game of its own with redshirt freshman running back PJ Hall emerging as the lead man on the depth chart. Hall has more than 100 yards rushing in three consecutive games, giving him a team-high 686 rushing yards. He has averaged 4.8 yards per carry.
But the loss of starting junior quarterback Jordan Doyle likely will allow defenses to load up against the running game, as FLC has struggled to pass without Doyle in the game.
Doyle, the second-leading rusher for FLC, suffered a broken leg in the Skyhawks’ 28-20 win at Colorado Mesa last week, and sophomore Trevor Bonifasi will take over as the starter.
Bonifasi is just 4-of-15 passing for 84 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions this season. As a freshman, Bonifasi was 10-of-21 passing for 96 yards.
“I think he’s done as good as we could expect,” Smith said of Bonifasi’s work in practice this week. “The team has rallied behind Bono, and hopefully we can come to the field and play well behind him. We have a lot to overcome with the loss of (Doyle), and we have to run the ball well and take the pressure off of him. I think he will be OK with all the reads and everything else he will have to do.”
The Western State defense has 12 interceptions this season, and the Mountaineers will be lurking on Bonifasi’s pass attempts this week. The Mountaineers also have sacked opposing quarterbacks 16 times to just seven for FLC this season.
Bonifasi will be able to rely on wide receivers Andrew Johnson and Juquelle Thompson. Johnson leads the team with 29 catches and 376 yards with two touchdowns, and Thompson is up to 202 yards and a team-high five touchdowns on just 12 receptions.
“The wideouts are going to have to make big catches and do all of that – get open, catch the ball and get it done,” Smith said.
Western State quarterback Brett Arrivey has completed 60.8 percent of his passes for 1,720 yards and 11 touchdowns, but he also has thrown 10 interceptions this season.
Linebacker Ryan Ross leads FLC in a slew of defensive categories, including tackles (77) and tackles for loss (6). He also is the team’s co-leader in interceptions (2) and sacks (1).
Thomas Chavira leads Western State with five sacks, and Jade Terry leads the team with 76 tackles.
Smith said the key to the game will be the play of his offensive line, which has a big task in giving Bonifasi time to throw while facing a defense that will load up to try to stop Hall and the run game.
“That’s the key to what will take place. Those guys know what it takes, they’ve had some success, and it will take those guys up front for us to have any success,” Smith said. “We have to hold their running back to under 100 yards, and we have to run ourselves to control the game.”
jlivingston@ durangoherald.com
